Rendell's Odd Twists Are Done To A Turn

Have you ever thought you recognized someone from the back, only to tap the person on the shoulder and find yourself face-to-face with a stranger?

The 11 short stories in Ruth Rendell's The New Girl Friend have the same disconcerting effect. Several of them are built around shocking surprises; others are chilling little oddities from almost the first paragraph on.

The stories are more similar in tone to Rendell's novels of psychological suspense, such as The Tree of Hands and A Demon in My View, than to her more conventional Inspector Wexford mysteries. Still, even Wexford fans know Rendell's penchant for mixing the ordinary with the bizarre. That things are never quite what they seem in any Rendell work is a major understatement.

Even the most wary reader is likely to be taken in, not only by the twists of each tale in The New Girl Friend, but also by the differences between them. One story, for example, may end on a note of grisly violence, while another plies its surprises in more subtle ways.

The title story, which won Rendell a 1984 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, is ostensibly a tale of suburban adultery with a young wife becoming involved with her best friend's husband. Theirs is a secret affair in more ways than one, and to say any more would ruin Rendell's neat trickery.

In ''Loopy,'' however, we know something is up from the first sentence: ''At the end of the last performance, after the curtain calls, Red Riding Hood put me on a lead and with the rest of the company we went across to the pub.'' No, it is not the Big Bad Wolf narrating the story, but an actor in a wolf suit, and thereby hangs this tale. The actor is sorry the show is over; he liked wearing the wolf suit, felt comfortable in it. And soon he takes to wearing it inside his house, then outside. That the narrator foreshadows the story's ending while talking about the wolf suit -- ''They have refused to let me see it, which makes me wonder if it has been cleaned and made presentable again'' -- in no way robs the suspense. We still want to know the details.

The thin line between illusion and reality is explored in totally different fashion in the charming ''The Green Road to Quephanda.'' It is sort of a ghost story of a place, an abandoned railway line running through the heart of London. A fantasy writer describes it as a beautiful pathway, but his unimaginative friend sees only weeds and rubbish -- until one curious afternoon.

In several stories, the past reaches out to trap characters in unexpected ways. A young couple believe they have found a bargain in a new home in ''Hare's House.'' They don't mind that a murder was once committed there, at least not in the beginning. In ''A Dark Blue Perfume,'' a retired man is obsessed with finding out what happened to his ex-wife, whom he hasn't seen in years. And in ''The Orchard Walls,'' a grown woman at last comes to terms with a shameful childhood incident.

Although all the stories necessarily turn on a smaller screw than Rendell's novels do, they show the same deftness of approach and acuity of insight. As to whether their brevity minimizes their impact, remember that size is the last thing you think of when someone drops an ice cube down your back.